What is the nextcard Bilt 2.0 Calculator?
The nextcard Bilt 2.0 Calculator compares the new Bilt Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium cards across both housing point earning options: Housing Rewards Only and Flexible Bilt Cash.
Enter your monthly rent or mortgage and spending to see:
- Total points earned
- Effective points per dollar
- Which Bilt card works best for your situation
This calculator also lets you compare results against other popular cards (such as Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Capital One Venture X) and is fully configured to handle Bilt Cash redemptions, including Advanced Mode logic for Bilt Cash credits, housing points, Points Accelerator, and the $50 Bilt Cash bonus earned for every 25,000 points.
It is constantly being updated and accurately reflects all of the Bilt Card changes as of February 2026.
Bilt 2.0 Overview & Calculator Background
TLDR; Option 1 earns points on your rent, as long as you spend 25% of your monthly rent/mortgage per month on non-rent expenses. Option 2 works if you treat the new Bilt cards as earning at least 2.33 points per dollar spent (up to a certain limit per month).
Bilt’s three new cards use more complex earning mechanics: Bilt Blue Card, Bilt Obsidian Card, and Bilt Palladium Card. There are two ways you can earn points from your housing payment:
- Option 1: Housing Only Rewards
- Option 2: Flexible Bilt Cash
The nextcard calculator summarizes how the Bilt cards effectively work with Option 1 & Option 2.
How does Housing Only Rewards work (Option 1)?
Option 1 (Housing Only Rewards) skips Bilt Cash entirely and goes straight to earning points on rent/mortgage payments, tied directly to how much you spend on the cards.
You must spend at least 25% of your monthly rent to access the point multipliers. If you don’t hit the minimum spend requirement, you still earn 250 points per month.
Then, here's how the tiers work. Let's use a $1,000 rent example:
- 0.5x points: Spend at least 25% of monthly rent ($250)
- 0.75x points: Spend at least 50% of monthly rent ($500)
- 1x points: Spend at least 75% of monthly rent ($750)
- 1.25x points: Spend the same or more as your monthly rent ($1,000+)
The Bilt 2.0 Calculator automatically determines your tier based on your inputted spend and accurately determines your point earnings.
How does Flexible Bilt Cash work (Option 2)?
Bilt Cash is the new currency you earn for spending on the Bilt cards (only available in Option 2, Flexible Bilt Cash). You’ll earn 4% Bilt Cash for every $1 you spend. This is completely separate from the standard base earnings on the cards.
For example, if you have the Bilt Blue card and spend $100 on it, you earn both:
- 1x on all purchases = 100 points
- 4% Bilt cash = $4 Bilt Cash
You can then redeem Bilt Cash in a multitude of ways. The simplest way to redeem is against your rent or mortgage at a rate of $1 Bilt Cash = 33 points
So in the above example, $4 Bilt Cash would get you 133 points when redeemed against your rent or mortgage. In sum, $100 spend on the Bilt Blue earns you 100 points from your base spend alongside 133 points from Rent for a total of 233 points.
The Bilt 2.0 Calculator takes your total spend and calculates the total Bilt Cash you earn. It will then convert that into Bilt Points so you can easily compare the new cards and the two options for earning housing points.
What are all the ways you can use Bilt Cash?
Bilt denotes all the ways you can use your Bilt Cash here, but listed for simplicity:
- Elevated status for transfer bonuses
- Hotel bookings via Bilt Travel Portal
- Lyft credits
- Fitness Classes
- Dining at select Bilt partner restaurants
- Home Delivery via GoPuff
- The Bilt Collection
And you can also just use your Bilt Cash to get Bilt Points from your rent, up to your full rent or mortgage amount.
In Advanced Mode, you can select any redemption option you want using the Bilt 2.0 Calculator. You have the option to allocate any Bilt Cash amount you want.
What are the effective earn rates of the cards (for Option 2)?
I think this is the easiest way to think about these cards for Option 2. For most people, you likely are't spending up to the limit.
Effectively, up until 75% of your total rent/mortgage (per month), you will earn at least:
- Bilt Blue: 2.33x Bilt Points on all spend
- Bilt Obsidian: 4.33x Bilt Points on grocery or rent (up to $25k/year), 3.33x on travel, and 2.33x on all other spend
- Bilt Palladium: 3.33x Bilt Points on all spend
How we got to these numbers? Essentially, it goes to the unit economics of how much Bilt Cash you earn and how you can redeem that Bilt Cash against your rent:
- Every $1 spent on these cards earns 4% Bilt Cash
- Then, $3 Bilt Cash can be redeemed for 100 Bilt Points when used against your rent
- Effectively, that means that $1 spent earns 1.33 Bilt Points (additive ontop of existing base spend categories)
To oversimplify: the cards earn 1.33x more than advertised (per month). You can play around with the Bilt 2.0 Calculator to see how this plays out.
*The limitation of this oversimplification is that you can't redeem more Bilt Cash than your monthly rent.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is our attempt to answer all questions about the nextcard Bilt Calculator that have arisen so far. If you have additional questions, shoot us an email: hello@nextcard.com
Is it safe to value Bilt Cash at a dollar for dollar value?
You should not. Redeeming Bilt Cash for credits is worth dollar to dollar, but unless Bilt Cash has a specific redemption selected, it does not have an assigned value in the calculator.
For example, in Advanced Mode on the calculator, you must explicitly list specific credit redemptions for Bilt Cash. If you don’t it has no value associated with it.
If I only use the $0 annual fee card to pay rent and nothing else, will I earn any points?
It depends on which method you elect to earn points from housing. You can see how it’s all modeled out within the Bilt 2.0 Calculator.
If you go with “Housing Only Rewards,” if you pay your rent through Bilt and don’t put any spend on the cards, you’ll still get 250 points.
If you go with “Flexible Bilt Cash,” you must spend on the card to earn Bilt Cash. If you don’t have Bilt Cash, then you won’t be able to earn points on rent. It doesn't matter if you do 10 transactions—you need to spend volume on the card to earn points.
As you adjust your spending on the Bilt Calculator, you’ll see how spending ties closely with how many points you’d earn.
Do I need to spend 75% of my rent per month to earn any points on my rent?
No. This is a very common misconception.
From the T&C themselves:
You may redeem Bilt Cash to unlock Bilt Points on your payment: every $3 of Bilt Cash unlocks 100 Bilt Points, up to a maximum of 1 Point per $1 of your payment amount.
There is no minimum spend required here. For example, in the Bilt Calculator, if you put $300 of spend on a $1,000 rent, you’ll see that you actually do earn points (even though that is 30% of your rent).
Is there a minimum amount of Bilt Cash you need to have before you can redeem for rewards?
No. You can start redeeming Bilt Cash for rewards as soon as you have some.
If you redeem your Bilt Cash against your rent, you'll get 3 points for every 1 cent of Bilt Cash redeemed. As you input your spending against your rent in the Bilt Calculator, you’ll notice there is no “minimum” required before you start earning points via Option 2 (Flexible Bilt Cash).
Does the calculator factor in welcome bonuses/sign-up bonuses?
The calculator does factor in starting Bilt Cash balances, but does not factor in welcome bonuses. The Bilt 2.0 Calculator is designed to evaluate the ongoing value of the cards on a month to month basis, rather than value the cards from their first year value.
That said, if we were to value the automatic Bilt Cash provided by each of the bonuses, they’re worth the following (assuming you’re using them against rent/mortgage):
- $100 Bilt Cash = 3,333 Bilt Points
- $200 Bilt Cash = 6,666 Bilt Points
- $300 Bilt Cash = 10,000 Bilt Points
So effectively, the bonuses on the Blue, Obsidian, and Palladium can be thought of:
- Bilt Blue: $100 Bilt Cash = 3,333 Bilt Points
- Bilt Obsidian: $200 Bilt Cash = 6,666 Bilt Points
- Bilt Palladium: 50,000 points + $300 Bilt Cash = 60,000 Bilt Points
Does Bilt Cash expire?
Yes. It expires in the calendar year it was earned, with up to $100 in Bilt Cash rolling over to the next year.
- For example, if you end 2026 with $50 in Bilt Cash, all $50 will over to 2027
- But if you end 2026 with $300 in Bilt Cash, only $100 will roll over to 2027
It does not matter if you earned the Bilt Cash in Dec 2026; it will expire if you're over $100.
This calculator does not factor in expiration. It’s designed to give you an overall sense of what your potential earnings are, but it does not project your earnings until the end of the calendar year. Note that “annual” is based on a 12 month timeframe, which may not be accurate when it comes to Bilt Cash.
What happens if you spend more than needed against your rent with Flexible Bilt Cash?
If you spend more than 75% of your rent in a month, you won’t be able to redeem all of it against your rent. Any excess will rollover to the next month and expires in the calendar year it is earned.
For instance, let’s say your rent/mortgage is $1,000 and you spend $1,000 on everyday purchases on one of the cards in a month. You you earn the following:
- 1,000 Bilt points
- $40 Bilt Cash, which can be redeemed against your rent, at a rate of $0.03 Bilt Cash = 1 Bilt Point, up to 1x of your rent per month. So you redeem your Bilt Cash and get 1,000 more Bilt Points + $10 in "excess Bilt Cash"
The $10 in leftover Bilt Cash stays in your account for the rest of the calendar year. Bilt Cash expires at the end of the calendar year in which it is earned. So if you earn Bilt Cash in Dec 2026, it expires on Dec 31, 2026 (gg). You get to rollover $100 to the following year.
In Standard mode, the calculator will automatically put your earnings into “excess Bilt Cash” and normalize it. In Advanced Mode, you can reallocate your Bilt Cash accordingly. Any unused Bilt Cash will be flagged for you to see.